. Essays on hypochondriacal and other nervous affections . tinued human machinery is of so complicated astructure, and its motions, although various, INSANITY IMPLIES DEBILITY. 99 are all so connected and dependent upon eachother, that a derangement in one part, mayproduce a temporary augmented action in thewhole machine; in the same manner as thewheels of a watch, if the balance be removed,will run down with increased and inordinateforce. Mental diseases are well illustrated by thoseof the body. The paroxysms of mania areconvulsions of the mind*; those of melancho-lia its paralysis
. Essays on hypochondriacal and other nervous affections . tinued human machinery is of so complicated astructure, and its motions, although various, INSANITY IMPLIES DEBILITY. 99 are all so connected and dependent upon eachother, that a derangement in one part, mayproduce a temporary augmented action in thewhole machine; in the same manner as thewheels of a watch, if the balance be removed,will run down with increased and inordinateforce. Mental diseases are well illustrated by thoseof the body. The paroxysms of mania areconvulsions of the mind*; those of melancho-lia its paralysis. It is a common, but an ill-founded notion, that madness, in any of itsmodifications, arises for the most part froman excess of intellectual vigour: it is not inevery case, but in many cases it is, a symptomof radical imbecility, or of premature decay. * Mania in general bears a striking analogy to chorea. Constant,irregular, and involuntary motions of the body characterise the one .?motions, precisely cox-respondent of the mind, constitute the ESSAY XIV. PHYSICAL MALADY THE OCCASION OF MFNTALDISORDER. In the preceding essay, an instance wasstated, in which derangement of mind seem-ed to have been cured by the opportune oc-currence of a bodily complaint. I recollect aremarkable case, in which, on the other hand,a derangement of the body unequivocally pro-duced a disorder of the understanding. Thiscase occurred at one of those critical periodsof life, at which the female sex are particu-larly liable to an anomalous variety of dis-eases, especially to those to which there isany hereditary or constitutional predisposi-tion. The poor woman fancied that she sawher bed encompassed with a legion of devils,impatient to hurry her to eternal derided medicine, and obstinately andhaughtily resisted its application. In a veryshort time, however, an alteration havingtaken place in her physical condition, she re-pented of her folly, and smiled at the men-14 102 PHYSICAL
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